Free design proof on every custom order: no templates, no stock SKUs
Die-cut greeting cards break away from the standard rectangle, cut into a custom silhouette. A tree for a holiday card, a heart for an anniversary, a logo shape for a branded corporate greeting. The outline becomes part of the design instead of a frame around it, which makes the card stand out the moment it's pulled from an envelope. Available folded or flat, in any cardstock weight, with the die shape built to your artwork.
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A standard greeting card is a rectangle, folded once, with the design living entirely inside that fixed frame. A die-cut greeting card removes that constraint by cutting the card into a custom silhouette. A shape that echoes the occasion, the sender's brand, or the artwork itself, rather than boxing it inside four straight edges. The die, a steel cutting form built to the exact outline of the design, is what makes this possible: instead of trimming a rectangle, the card is punched into whatever shape the artwork calls for, whether that's a simple rounded profile or an intricate silhouette with several internal cuts.
Shape choice tends to follow the occasion. Seasonal cards lean toward recognizable silhouettes. A tree or ornament for a holiday greeting, a leaf for autumn, a heart for a wedding or anniversary card. Corporate greeting cards often use a die cut built around a logo mark, turning the card itself into a small piece of branded merchandise rather than a printed rectangle with a logo placed inside it. More abstract or geometric die cuts work well for design-forward invitations or announcements where the shape is meant to feel modern rather than literal. In every case, the die shape should be simple enough to hold up structurally. Very thin protrusions or sharp interior angles can weaken the card or make it prone to bending at the tip during shipping and handling.
Stock choice matters more on a die-cut card than a standard one, because the cut edges are exposed rather than tucked inside a fold. A cardstock in the 14 pt to 18 pt range holds a clean cut without the edges feeling flimsy, and a smooth or lightly textured finish shows the precision of the die line more clearly than a heavily textured stock would. Folded die-cut cards, where the shape carries through both the front panel and the interior message. Need the die line to align precisely across the fold, which is one of the details worth double-checking on a physical proof before a full run goes to print.
Because the die itself is a one-time tooling cost built specifically for the chosen shape, die-cut cards work best for a design that's being reused across a season or an ongoing campaign rather than a single one-off card. Once the die exists, reordering the same shape in a new color palette or message is straightforward and doesn't require rebuilding the cutting form. For a design that's likely to change every time, a simpler folded or standard rectangular card remains the more cost-efficient choice.
A greeting card is handled deliberately, stood on a shelf and often kept, so it needs enough stiffness to stand unaided. Below about 250gsm a folded card slumps rather than standing. From 300gsm upward it holds its own weight cleanly. Uncoated and textured stocks are common here because a card is frequently written in, and a coated surface rejects pen.
Will my card stand up on a shelf? From 300gsm folded, yes. Lighter than that and it leans, which is the most common complaint about cheap cards.
Full color outside is standard. The inside is the decision worth making deliberately: printed with a message, printed with a light pattern, or left completely blank so the sender writes their own. Leaving it blank is not a saving so much as a choice about who the card is for. A blank interior is what makes a card usable for any occasion.
Should the inside be printed? Print it if the card carries a fixed message. Leave it blank if the sender writes, and make sure the stock takes pen.
Coating changes both the look and whether the card can be written in. Gloss lifts photographic artwork but rejects pen entirely, which makes it wrong for a card meant to be signed. Matte and uncoated take ink cleanly. Foil, emboss and spot UV are all common on the outside, where they do more work per pound than extra color does.
Can I write in a gloss card? Not reliably. Ink beads and smears. If it gets signed, the inside must be matte or uncoated even if the outside is gloss.
Folded cards are scored before folding so the stock bends along a controlled line rather than cracking its coating at the spine. The envelope is ordered alongside rather than afterwards, because matching a card to an envelope later is difficult and a card that does not fit its envelope arrives creased. Undoing everything the stock choice was for.
Do envelopes come with the cards? Order them together. Matching size, color and stock afterwards is far harder than it sounds.
The card is cut to a shape rather than a rectangle. A tree, a heart, a bauble, a logo outline. The die is a one-off tool reused on reprints, so a shaped card gets cheaper the second time it runs. The practical constraint is the envelope: a shaped card still needs something to post it in, and that has to be decided before the die is cut rather than after.
What envelope fits a shaped card? One sized to the shape's bounding box. Settle the envelope before the die. It is the constraint people forget.
Ask for samples before a run. Whether a card stands on a shelf and whether it takes pen are both decided here, and neither shows on screen.
Metallic foil pressed into the card. On a greeting card it works hardest on a single element (a word, a shape, a border) against an uncoated ground, where the contrast between matte stock and bright metal does the work.
The card pressed into relief. Blind embossing with no ink at all is the quietest premium finish available and suits formal and sympathy cards, where restraint is the point.
A raised gloss varnish on selected areas of an otherwise matte card. It is visible only as it catches light, which makes it more interesting in the hand than a printed effect can be.
Fold lines scored so the spine does not crack, and shaped outlines cut where the card is not a rectangle. Both are mechanical operations done after printing and before packing.
Same family, genuinely different jobs. Your current selection is highlighted.
| Card | From | Format | Order it when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Folded Greeting Cards | $170 | Center score, full interior | Someone writes a note inside |
| Standard Greeting Cards | $160 | Flat, printed both sides | Announcements and thank-you cards |
| Die-cut Greeting Cards | $180 | Cut to a silhouette | The shape is part of the message |
| Custom Greeting Cards | $190 | Square, panoramic or gatefold | No standard format fits the idea |
One sized to the shape's bounding box rather than to the shape itself. Settle the envelope before the die is cut. It is the constraint people forget, and discovering it afterwards means either a new die or a custom envelope.
It is a one-off tooling cost carried into the first order and reused on reprints, so a shaped card gets meaningfully cheaper the second time you run it. For a single small run it is a large share of the total.
Reasonably intricate, but very fine points and deep narrow notches bend and tear in handling and posting. We will flag anything at risk on the proof rather than discovering it in finishing.
Yes. A shaped folded card is common, with the shape cut on the outer edges and the spine left straight. The fold line has to stay straight, which constrains where the shape can reach.
Pricing for die-cut greeting cards starts at $180 and moves with quantity, size, material and finish rather than sitting on a fixed list. Setup is shared across the run, so the per-unit price drops steeply as the quantity rises: the gap between a few hundred and a few thousand is usually the significant one. Send the size, quantity and what it has to do and you get a firm figure back, not a range.
There is a practical minimum rather than a hard one. Every run carries artwork checks, a proof and a press setup, so a very small quantity of die-cut greeting cards prices poorly per unit even though we will still make it. If you are ordering a small batch, ask for pricing at two or three quantities at once: the curve usually shows that a modest increase costs very little more in total.
The clock starts when you approve the proof, not when the order is placed, which is the part most people are surprised by. You get a proof first: a digital proof showing the outside, the interior and the fold line, with foil, emboss and spot UV marked as separate layers so you can see exactly what is being treated rather than inferring it. Turnaround after approval depends on the finish: anything laminated, foiled or die-cut adds a stage that cannot be compressed without causing problems later. Tell us the date you actually need them and we will work backwards from it rather than quoting a generic lead time.
Print-ready artwork with bleed and a safe margin, supplied as a PDF, AI or EPS. Because this product is cut to a shape, the file also needs a live vector path for the blade to follow. A JPG or PNG has no outline to cut to, so it has to be redrawn first. If your file is not print-ready, say so when you order. We would rather fix it before the proof than after the run.
Yes. Cut to a silhouette is the standard build, and the dimensions around it are yours to set. A size that sits efficiently on the press sheet often costs no more than a standard one, while an awkward proportion that wastes half the sheet does. Ask before you commit and we will tell you whether a small change to the dimensions saves a disproportionate amount.
In most cases they are the same product under a different name: the trade uses several terms for it depending on the region and the supplier. What actually defines this one is the build: cut to a silhouette. Order it when the shape is part of the message. If you have seen it called die-cut greeting cards printing elsewhere, describe what it has to do rather than which name you found, and we will match the specification.
Yes. We provide free samples, and on die-cut greeting cards it is worth asking for one, because the difference between smooth card and smooth card is obvious in the hand and invisible on a screen. Most orders run on smooth card, but ask for whichever you are weighing up. You also get a free design proof before anything goes to press, so nothing is printed that you have not seen.
The usual choices are foil stamping, emboss and deboss, spot uv. Finish is not decoration on this product so much as a decision about how long it survives and how it reads in the hand, so it is worth choosing against the job rather than the budget. Tell us where the finished piece ends up and we will say which finish is doing real work and which is only adding cost.
Yes, and that is what almost every order here is. Nothing in this catalogue is a stock item: die-cut greeting cards are manufactured to the specification you give us, with your artwork on them. Send your logo as vector artwork where you have it, since that scales to any size without softening. If all you have is a low-resolution file, tell us and we will say what it needs before it reaches the press.
Yes, and a repeat run is simpler than the first one. We keep your approved specification on file, so a reorder skips the setup decisions and goes straight to production. Where the job used custom tooling, that tooling is reused, which is why a shaped run costs less the second time. Tell us the previous order and we will match it rather than starting the specification again.
Yes. Regalo Print has been producing custom commercial print for businesses across the USA and Canada since 2008, and every order ships tracked. The tracking number reaches you the day the job leaves, not the day it arrives. If you are working to a fixed date, say so when you order so the production schedule is built around the delivery date rather than the other way round.
